Something I thought of while looking at the calendar this year: I'm extra-impressed with what the drivers and their teams do, considering that the travel schedule has to mess with their sleep schedules. I know they put two weeks between races, generally (save for a few that are much closer together, geographically) but the jet lag from some of the travel must be absolutely brutal.

Until funding and development caps are put in place, its unlikely to change. In 2018 I think the top two each spent $300m on developing the cars, the others average around $25m. On a high tech endeavor like this, deep pockets count.

Here you will find the first of a two part article taking you through their budgets, and here is the second part.

Clearly a massive performance gap exists between the ‘big three’ – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull – and the rest. No team outside this trio has won a grand prix in the 100 races since FOM (then under the control of CVC Capital partners) began making its inequitable team payments. This is reflected in the size of their budgets.

I think we all came into this season expecting more out of Ferrari. In the past 5 years they have only been competitive with Merc for half of last year. Why did we think this year would be any different?

Help us Obi Wan Horner, you're our last remaining hope ... although I've always thought him to be a dangerous, albeit very skilled driver, have to take my hat off to Verstappen; hell of a drive with a car so down on power compared to the other two.